Why it is important to link the company’s goals to the employees’ personal goals

On one hand, you evaluate the value of an employee for your company considering what that employee brings to your company, how much his presence and work help your company.

On the other hand, the employee evaluates his/her job’s value considering how much it contributes to his life, helping him to have the life he wants.

Both sides make appreciations and evaluate each other based on their personal goals and expectations.

The more both parts receive what they want from each other, the more they will be pleased with their partnership and willing to maintain it.  Does this make sense?

According to Victor Vroom, who was one of the first psychologist who developed the Expectation Theory and applied it to organizations, employee motivation is determined by the results that they expect to obtain as the consequences of their actions. He speaks about two types of results:

1. The results obtained for the company, for e.g.: high performance, clients, time, ideas, innovations, quality etc.
2. The results obtained for the employee, for e.g.: bonuses, income, self-esteem, self-development, acceptance by others, professional development, promotions etc.

If the first type of results, the results that are obtained for the company, don’t lead to results of the second type, to the personal results, the employee will not be motivated to obtain the results for the company. It seems logic, right?

But if this is so clear, why so many companies fail to do this?

First, in order to be able to make the connection between the results that the company wants from the employee and the results the employee wants for himself/herself, the company needs to know what the employee wants. And this is the information that many companies fail to have.

Secondly, after you have the right information about the employee expectations, you need to set clear paths for him/her to know how the results obtained for the company helps him to obtain the personal results that he wants.

For example, if someone wants a promotion, you have to communicate clearly what is required from him/her to obtain that promotion, and to honour your promise when he/she meets those requirements. Maybe he has to achieve a certain level of performance, or/and has to develop certain skills and competencies to obtain the promotion. But if the employee doesn’t know what is required from him, his efforts and energy can go in different directions than the path through which he actually can obtain that specific promotion.

For example, an employee can give all his efforts to accomplish very well his tasks, thinking that in this way he will obtain a promotion. But if, in fact, you are willing to give him that promotion only if he contributes with something new, improving for example a system/ a process or when he adds new activities that bring value to the company, and he doesn’t know this, he may lower his efforts in time, because he doesn’t obtain what he wants by accomplishing very well his tasks. In this way he will obtain even less results for the company and will be less motivated.

Another example, if an employee knows that usually when he achieved great results doing certain activities he received bonuses/recognition/appreciation, but he didn’t receive these responses/recognitions any more lately, he may lower his efforts. His motivation will decrease because he is no longer sure that achieving the results that the company wants from him will secure him the results that he wants for himself. If the employee is not sure that doing x will obtain y for him, he will be less motivated to do x.

How the employer can communicate his goals and expectations to the employee

While the employer has different ways in which he communicates what he wants and expects from the employee, the reverse is not always true.

The employer communicates his expectations and goals starting with the hiring process, then through job description, meetings, providing feedback, doing performance evaluations etc.

Although it may seem simple to communicate the company’s goals and expectations, in practice it is not always clear to the employee what his employer wants or can be misunderstandings about it.

If you’ll ask the employer what he expects for example from John in certain situations, and then you’ll ask John what he thinks that his employer expects from him, you may have two different answers. Even if the employee has good intentions and is motivated to accomplish the employer expectations, if he doesn’t have an accurate understanding of them, he can’t have the expected results.

That’s way it is important to have a good communication in your company, and to make sure that you are understood correctly by your employees.

How employees communicate their goals and expectations to the employer

What opportunities did you create in your company for your employees to communicate their goals and expectations?

Your employees’ expectations and goals are different and knowing them is the first step in creating partnerships that are valuable for them too.

You have to invest time, energy and money to know these. And you have to do this in a structured manner, as you would do with any other project from your company. You’ll have to set the steps that you’ll take to accomplish the project, who will be involved in it, what will be the results that you’ll obtain, and how you’ll use the information. And you may need to ask for help from those who know how to do this, to get the job done faster.

Yes, it is not an easy process, but in this way you’ll set the foundation for the partnerships with your employees. You’ll know what your employees want, in which extent their current situations meet their personal goals and expectations, what the gaps are between where they are now and where they want to be, and you’ll have to decide if you’ll fill those gaps and how.